Sharing a Bed is Only the Beginning
by Silver Hearted
Summary: Among the storms of winter, Ichigo searches for Rukia and finds her seriously wounded. What does this mean for our favorite Shinigami partners? Ichigo playing doctor of course. Short multi-chaptered fic. Rated T for language & mild adult content. IchiRuki
1. Chapter 1

**This idea has been sitting in my notebook for awhile and I finally decided to post it. This has been my first real attempt at a chapter fic and although it's small, I'm quite proud. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but this particular plot line.**

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_Sharing a Bed is Only the Beginning - One_

Something was . . . wrong.

Of that much Kurosaki Ichigo was certain when he awoke to a freezing cold bedroom during the middle of Karakura's worst blizzard in a decade.

His father had the brilliant idea that the entire family should visit his parents a few towns over during the three-day weekend. With a double homework load in mind (his and the midget's) in addition to his duties as a shinigami, Ichigo had been forced to abstain from the mini-vacation.

Now, his father and siblings were stuck. Karakura was blindsided by the storm and inadequately prepared to deal with the fallback of snowed-in roads. No one could get back into the city and no one could leave. Even school had been canceled for the next week which meant that he and Ru-

_Oh, Kami! She is definitely _not _where I left her._

The only vibes that came from his closet were those of barren coldness.

He felt around the rest of the house and still nothing.

_Not good, not good, not good. Rukia better not have left again._

His eyes strayed immediately to his bedside desk where he was relieved to alight upon a clean surface.

_No good-bye letters there._

Next, to the closet. He ripped his blankets off in a tangled heap and almost crashed into the sliding panels of her domain when he stumbled in his haste. After a moment of fumbling, his fingers found purchase and the crash of the door resounded as he slammed it wide open.

The sight of her familiar face graced him, but it was lifeless: just a container, a gigai.

"Dammit."

He left the chappy-clad body where it lay and turned back to his desk. Or, more precisely, the drawer that contained his substitute shinigami license.

With a firm shove, his physical form fell into a crumpled mass on the floor. The fingers of his soul scrabbled to open his window out into the white shrouded world.

The flurries of snow had never felt so harsh before as they did now, slamming into Ichigo's face and other exposed extremities like a wall of needles.

He took a deep breath of the frigid air and willed himself to forget about the stinging pain. It meant little in light of the current situation.

Since the time that she'd faded from him completely in Hueco Mundo, he'd been able to sense her reiatsu with far more clarity than anyone else's. Every pulse and tremor and been made clear to him and he pressed that advantage now as he searched frantically for echoes of her presence.

After what felt like hours of precious time wasted, but was truly only mere moments, he caught onto the faint rhythm of her unique reiatsu.

She was somewhere at the park.

_Always that damned park! What was she thinking going without me?_

He took off in a sloppy shunpo that caused him to lose his footing more than once upon the ice-sheeted rooftops.

With every passing second, he gained distance on her, and yet . . .

"I should be getting closer to her. Why doesn't she feel any stronger?"

If anything, he thought that the pulses felt weaker than when he'd originally set out in her direction.

And as he finally set foot in the park, he felt those same pulses flutter dangerously.

_Like a failing heart._

Ichigo's already frantic flash stepping went into overdrive. His heartbeat picked up speed as her reiatsu dwindled ever lower.

Finally his sensing drew his attention to a snowbank far off to the left where the snapping waver of a single, pure white ribbon could barely be made out against the contrast of the black night and the shields of blinding snow.

If shunpo had a known speed limit, then Ichigo had just broken it in his eagerness to reach her. He briefly doubted that even Yoruichi herself could have made out the movement.

He didn't bother to land on his feet. Instead, Ichigo drove down onto his knees into the snow and at once buried his hands into the frozen depths of white.

The snow was shoveled away in fistfuls without a moments worth of hesitation concerning the temperature.

Sure enough, Sode no Shirayuki was the first thing that he uncovered.

The second was the red of Rukia's blood.

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**I hope you liked it! Please, please. please review and I'll try to get the next part up as soon as I can. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Here's part two for your reading pleasure. I felt kind of bad about leaving you all on a sort-of cliffhanger, so I tried to update quickly.**

**Disclaimer: the same as before.

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_Sharing a Bed is Only the Beginning – Two_

Red seeped through the snow like a ghastly tide. Ichigo continued on in horror as his hands were stained in one of his worst nightmares.

Under a foot of snow, he finally located her body in the form of one blue, shredded arm.

He worked his way from there until he'd unearthed all of her upper torso. Her hair lay in ice-crystallized tendrils. Her lips were so purpled that they almost matched her eyes as they parted to take in weak breaths of oxygen. Even then, the rising of her chest was so imperceptible that her respirations offered him little comfort.

From there, Ichigo simply tugged the rest of her body free as carefully as possible.

_Thank Kami her legs didn't suffer the same fate as her arm. It looks like some bastard took a saw to her skin._

He turned away only long enough to secure both of their zanpakutous to his back and then Rukia dominated all of his attention once more.

He scooped her body up into a craddled hold. Ichigo tucked her face into the crook of his neck to protect it from the biting gales and for warmth. He tried to position her arm in fashion that wouldn't jostle it too much and thanked with everything he had that she was out cold for all of this.

Then Ichigo was off. He didn't risk the slippery roofs this time and chose instead to take to the desolate streets. The only resistance he met along the way was having to skirt around a few cars deserted in the onslaught of snow.

He let out a cloudy breath of relief when the family clinic finally came into view.

"Don't worry, Rukia. We're almost home."

His first stop was the living room where he set her down tenderly in front of the fireplace and covered her with a spare blanket snatched off one of the couches. Sode no Shirayuki and Zangetsu were removed for convenience before Ichigo raced off towards the bathroom.

If there was one thing that he knew how to do after taking a beating, it was how to bandage himself up. The wrappings would be crude in comparison to what she really needed, but Ichigo didn't have the luxury of time on his hands.

Once he'd dug the necessary accoutrements from the medicine cabinet, he returned and started the fire going.

He kept the flame to a low burn for fear of her going into shock from such immediate heat and set to work on her arm. He bandaged it only temporarily to staunch the blood flow so that he could deal with her wet clothing.

What good was a fire when all of the warmth it provided was being sapped by some fabric?

Ichigo found another blanket to wrap like a turban around the still frozen hanks of her once glossy hair.

The outermost layer of her shihakusho didn't pose much of a problem and so he simply cut it off rather than risk moving her too much.

The white layer of her robes made for a greater challenge.

Without a second thought, he went up to his room and hurriedly grabbed two large sleeping shirts and one one far-too-small pair of boxers buried below all of the others.

Upon returning to the still unconscious shinigami, using as much discretion as he could, Ichigo removed the white fabric.

That didn't stop him from noticing her gentle curves completely though as he sat behind her to tenderly unwind her chest bindings and add them to the quickly growing discard pile off to the side.

He slipped his tee-shirt over her head.

_Thank Kami she's so small that it falls down almost to her knees._

Even once he'd laid her back down the shirt managed to cover her skin as far as her mid-calves.

Eyes closed, Ichigo took a deep breath before he reached up the hem of her shirt to carefully snag his fingers onto the sides of her panties. He slid them down her legs and still kept his eyes firmly shut as they landed in a quiet plop somewhere to the right.

He opened his eyes only long enough to clutch up his old boxers before blinding himself once again to slip the garment up her smooth legs.

He inhaled strongly in relief at having finished that job before doing similarly to himself. His robes and sandals joined the pile and he tugged the cotton shirt over his head.

Then, Ichigo took the time to redo her bandaging more securely.

Finally accepting that this was as much as he could do, he turned up the fire and settled himself against the bottom of the couch.

He pulled Rukia's chilled body against his chest between his legs and tucked the blankets in around them. He didn't even wince as her frozen toes touched the bare skin of his legs and instead focused on entrapping her fingers within his own.

With his head bent down to rest against her's, Ichigo's heart finally calmed enough to let him drift back into the comfort of sleep.

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**There you have it. How about a review maybe? The good, the bad and the ugly, they are all accepted. I already have part three written and the ending planned assuming that I stop at just four chapters.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh my goodness! You all have no idea how sorry that I am. I've left you all hanging for probably more that a month now. My best excuse for why is really sucky. The end of the quarter came and with it a bunch of tests. And then the beginning of the new quarter. My birthday. Halloween. A bunch of annoying and random distraction interspersed therein. Yeah . . . my reasons don't even begin to cover how bad I feel considering that I had already written part three by the night that I had posted part two. A thousand apologies.**

**Disclaimer: I continue to be ownership-less.**

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_Sharing a Bed is Only the Beginning – Three_

She woke to the sensation of movement.

And when Kuchiki Rukia could finally pry open her eyes, it was to watch a blanket drop up from her head to the floor.

_Wait a second, when did the floor become the ceiling?_

With a groan, she tossed her head up only to have it land roughly on a warm, solid mass.

Squinting her eyes through the semi-dark room, the first feature that she could distinguish was atrociously flaming hair.

_Ichigo?_

She struggled a bit in his grasp and immediately a sharp pain lanced through her arm causing her to glance down and scowl at the poorly done bandaging.

_If I weren't so weak right now I could heal this in a -_

"Ahh!"

Her thoughts were pulled aside as Ichigo took another lurching step forward.

"Ichigo? Ichigo! What are you doing? Put me down this instant!" demanded Rukia while her glares appeared not to faze him.

With some gentle shimmying, she managed to extricate her other arm from where it lay trapped between their two bodies.

Rukia snapped her fingers deftly in front of his face and still he didn't seem to notice her as he eased forward once again.

_Dammit, he must be sleep-walking._

Rukia resigned herself as the substitute shinigami made his slow trek to the stairs.

After the imbalance she felt with only a single step upwards, Rukia imagined herself tumbling from his arms in a pained heap and so she wrapped her good arm securely around his neck.

If Ichigo sensed her shift, he didn't show it in his semi-conscious state and simply maintained his steady pace.

She stayed quiet until they reached his room and he set her gently on the bed.

"Okay now Ichigo, just let me get into the closet and then you can get back to the sleep that anyone can tell you desperately need."

Her move to stand attracted the first sign of coherence from Ichigo that she'd seen as he turned to scowl lightly at her actions.

Rukia halted and his face recomposed itself into blankness as he heaved his physical body from the floor and tucked it safely into the closet whereupon its head flopped onto her gigai's shoulder. He firmly shut the two forms out of sight before turning back to her.

"You know what, Ichigo? Why don't I just go sleep in Karin and Yuzu's room tonight? You can finally have the room to yourself again." She said the last part in an almost sing-songy voice as if the bribery would reach him.

It didn't.

Ichigo advanced on her and again slid his arms beneath her back and legs.

"Fine. You can carry me to the other room, you big oaf. Now let's just get – hey! Hey!"

No sooner had Ichigo picked Rukia up than he was already dropping her back down again. Only this time, her landing position was a foot or so closer to the wall than before.

She could only watch in frozen shock as Ichigo pulled the covers up to her chest while leaving a corner of the blanket flipped down to slip under himself.

Caught in the grip of her curious nature, Rukia didn't fight back as he settled himself underneath and scooted closer to her.

His arm confidently snaked out to wrap around her waist and still Rukia didn't halt his movements. When he secured her within his embrace, chest to back, she felt her breath catch.

She squirmed a bit and only then noticed the odd texture of her clothing against her skin. Gingerly lifting the blanket, she peaked underneath.

_Oh, Kami . . . Are those what I think they are?_

She got distracted yet again as he nuzzled his face into the nape of her neck and decided that this newest predicament could wait until morning.

Aided by a final calming breath, Rukia allowed herself to settle deeper into the boy surrounding her so completely and joined him in the bliss of unconsciousness.

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**So, did this chapter in any way make up for how I abandoned you all for a month? Feel free to tell me what you think. Many thanks go out to all of the reviewers and people who have put me on their favorite and/or alert lists. A special thanks is for ichirukifan13 and VanillaTwilight4 who both put me on their alert lists last night causing emails to be sent to me which awoke me up from my fanfiction uploading stupor. Please continue to review. :)  
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	4. Chapter 4

**I have to admit, I'm pretty embarrassed with myself. I only read completed stories on FanFiction because it annoys me when authors don't regularly update. Guess who's looking in the mirror and calling herself a hypocrite now. But, as bad of an excuse as it is, life really does get in the way of plans. As does losing the ability to connect to the internet for a month. Either way, I'm here now with the final chapter for your reading pleasure. It's about twice as long as any of the others and I hope that you've enjoyed my first completed story on FF. Thanks for reading.**

**The final disclaimer: still don't own anything.**

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_Sharing a Bed is Only the Beginning – Four_

Apparently the storm had finally broken because when Rukia opened her eyes, it was to the sight and feeling of warm sunlight highlighting her body.

Okay, so maybe that was a poor attempt at trying to kid herself. It was still the middle of winter after all and the heat that she felt wasn't coming from the direction of the window; it was emanating from behind her.

With ginger movements due to the challenges imposed by her arm, Rukia set about turning on her other side and facing the cause of her current predicament: a certain Ichigo Kurosaki. Even in the midst of sleep, his face was pressed into a look of consternation.

Using her good hand, her fingers traced along his frown lines and gently smoothed them out.

_How to wake him . . . ? How to wake him . . . ?_

Rukia's face took on a devious smirk as she worked her arm up further for a better vantage point and then quickly flicked the sleeping shinigami substitute in the forehead.

_Nothing. Damn. Alright, on to option number two._

She loosely pinched his cheek between her thumb and index finger, tightening and pulling only at the moment she yelled, "ICHIGO!"

He flew up like a shot and fell off the bed while causing Rukia to flip on to her back as she had been unknowingly laying on his arm. She settled with a simple "oomph" as he groaned violently from down on the floor. And then suddenly he was standing, using his full height to his advantage, as he loomed over her.

"_What the hell, Rukia!"_ His eyes were practically flaming in their intensity, but she simply shrugged off the sight.

"You mean 'what the hell am I wearing?' or 'what the hell am I doing in your bed?' or even, 'what the hell had you acting all he-man last night?'" she asked tauntingly.

Ichigo deflated at her words and responded by crumpling back down onto the bed and hanging his head low enough that it rested completely in the grip of his hands. A wearied sigh escaped him and he slumped even lower.

Rukia sat up at that point and took pity on the poor boy. "Let's just take this one step at a time. Okay?" He nodded lightly and she continued. "First off, want to explain my attire? It is most unbecoming of a Kuchiki to find herself in boxers. I might keep your shirt, though. It _is_ kind of comfy."

He let out a single bark of laughter and then fell into a resting positing on the bed so that he could look up at his petite partner. His eyes met hers evenly as he said, "I found you last night. Frozen. Wet. Critically injured. I had to take care of you somehow, and that meant taking off your shihakusho."

"Did you peek?"

"Tried not to."

She watched him through squinted eyes for a moment, but relented upon seeing his no nonsense expression. "I suppose that's the best I could hope for. Now, on to my second ques-"

"No." He shook his head firmly. "You're going to answer some of mine first. Got it?"

She debated silently to herself for a moment before acquiescing. "Fine. What do you want to know?"

"Care to explain to me just why the hell you were out alone last night in the freaking middle of a _snow storm_?"

"Not particularly," she said airily. At his immediate glare, though, she went on. "But I guess you deserve some sort of explanation."

Ichigo waved his hand in the air as if to say, "Do go on."

Rukia scowled at his actions and made him wait as she resettled into the bed to begin her story.

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_Ichigo swung open his bedroom door to the point that it slammed into the wall on the other side and walked in confidently. His bookbag landed loudly on the desk and he had already flopped back onto his bed by the time that Rukia had fully stepped inside._

_She shut the door softly behind her and turned to see Ichigo, for once, totally relaxed. His eyes were closed, his visible muscles had lost their tension and his hands rested easily behind his head. Rukia hopped up into her closet and faced him, her legs kicking lightly over the space between her perch and the floor._

_Still the picture of calm, Ichigo broke the silence. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for a weekend like this: no family, hopefully no hollows, or other interruptions, and an extra day off. You wanna know what I've got planned . . . ? Abso-_freaking_-lutely nothing. Isn't it great?"_

_His head was bobbing to a tune only he could hear while Rukia's gaze was drawn down to the floor. _He really hasn't had a break for awhile, has he? Hmm.

_The atmosphere between the two of them was argument free, for possibly the longest amount of time ever, in the hours that ensued. Ichigo made dinner (he didn't trust Rukia to do so much as boil water) and they even watched TV together._

_It couldn't last, though._

_They'd fallen asleep to the sight of a sky shrouded in white and barely a few hours later they were waking up again, well, Rukia was. She heard her hollow-phone ringing and dug it out to flip up the screen. A single dot bleeped over the park._

Seems simple enough. I can do this without Ichigo. That way, he'll be rested _and _owe me something . . . something like a Chappy marathon.

_She slipped from her gigai and left it resting in the closet. Holding her breath, Rukia tiptoed out of Ichigo's room and down the hall. Only once outside did she breathe more easily. And then she was off, shooting towards the park, and cursing the limited visibility._

_When Rukia arrived at the last, she groaned. Even if it was only one hollow, the scaled-up version of a scorpion-thing was huge and menacing as it scuttled quickly after a teen-aged spirit. She couldn't afford to hesitate, though, and so she launched herself into the creature's path. With an unholy roar, the hollow skidded to a stop and looked her up and down in appraisal. _

_If its almost immediately resumed movements were any indication, it appeared that the hollow had not thought much of the slight female before it._

_Before Rukia could truly engage the creature head-on, though, she was propelled to the side. She groaned inwardly at the sight of the spirit crouched protectively over her body. _Oh, Kami, _please_ tell me that this isn't what I think it is. One boy with an insane hero complex is more than enough for me.

_It seemed she wasn't that lucky because the boy wasted no time jumping into his let-the-boy-protect-the-damsel spiel. "Stay out of the way." _Blah . . ._ "I can handle this." _Blah . . ._ "You don't need to get hurt for me." _Blah, bla-blah.

This is getting seriously old, seriously fast.

_The wannabe hero was interrupted when Rukia saw the hollow lunging for his back and quickly flipped the two of them over. She held up her zanpakutou to guard against the creature's mouth, but her sword alone couldn't completely stop the attack; her arm took the brunt of it._

_Rukia bit her lip to contain her gasp of pain as the entire limb was abraded by the hollow's razor-edged teeth._

Déja vu, anyone?

_Massing her strength, she shoved the hollow back and then tossed Sode no Shirayuki to her other arm so that she could unceremoniously slam the hilt into the spirit's forehead. As he dissolved into a butterfly and flew towards the sky, she pushed herself upwards and faced off against the hollow once more._

_She'd knocked it into a copse of trees before and now the creature's skin contrasted heavily with the pure white snow that had cascaded over it as the hollow rose unsteadily to its many legs. They rushed each other in a life-threatening game of chicken that Rukia was happy to lose as she dodged and cut off every limb on the hollow's left side._

_It roared again, this time in agony rather than at the joy of the hunt._

_As the hollow crashed down on its one side, Rukia did a 180 and aimed for its right legs from her position behind the creature._

_Just as she readied to make her second decisive attack, a tail and stinger came swinging at her and she __was forced to leap back._

Note to self: don't forget the tail.

_She gathered her stance once more and set off. For the next five minutes, she busied herself weaving in and out of limbs, hacking off legs and finally bringing the creature down. With a sigh of relief at her success, she approached the still flailing and roaring hollow from the front as it attempted to struggle forwards to no avail._

_Her sword arm was hanging uselessly at her side and her usual tolerance to cold had long since surpassed its limit, leaving her body wracked with shivers, but she was confident that, even so, this hollow no longer posed any threat to her. With a smirk, she leaped up and swung out her zanpakutou against its mask. _

_The ghastly white face cracked apart and Rukia was more than eager to return home when suddenly a mighty whack took her across the head as the hollow's last remaining appendage made its final move._

_Just before Rukia could pass out from her compounded injuries, she had one last lucid thought._

Damn, forgot the tail.

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Ichigo stared aghast at Rukia.

From their positions on their sides, facing one another, Rukia held up her hands in defense. "I know. I know. It's really stupid, right? The amazing Kuchiki Rukia brought down by a tail. You just better not tell anyone."

Ichigo only gaped wider as she conceded idiocy while her face slightly flushed and she looked away in embarrassment. In frustration, he swung up over her body before she could react and forced her eyes to meet his own, his arms braced firmly on each side of her head.

His scowl darkened as he said, "_That's_ what you think I'm annoyed with right now! That you got taken down by a simple mistake? No, Rukia. _No._ That's not it at all."

His body practically collapsed atop her own, but he was still careful to support all his own weight, while his forehead came to rest upon her shoulder. In a whisper, he began again. "It's my fault. You had the bloody idea that I needed a break and got hurt while I slept away. Your life was put at risk because I loosely announced wanting a time-out."

As his head endearingly burrowed back and forth along her collarbone, he murmured into her skin, "_Never_ again. I promise. Never again."

The words were repeated like a mantra and Rukia felt her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. Finally she relaxed and brought her injured arm up to rest on Ichigo back while the other reached higher to gently sift through his obnoxious hair.

Eventually, when his head stopped its frantic movements against her, he leaned up to press them forehead to forehead. "We're partners. That means you and me together. Always. Understand?"

She nodded against him.

An uncharacteristic grin lit his face and he fell to his side so that they could spoon once more. Mere minutes after they'd gotten comfortable, Rukia felt her stomach growl and blushed, knowing that Ichigo clearly heard the noise.

Like always, she hid her embarrassment with anger and reached over to smack Ichigo upside the head. "You trying to starve me, Strawberry? It's . . ." she leaned up briefly to check the clock, " . . . nearly two in the afternoon. The wounded need adequate nourishment . . . preferably served in bed."

He pulled away with a groan and stood. "I suppose I could fetch something for the Kuchiki princess, just this once."

"Hmm, well, while you're at it, I think I'll just be claiming the window side of your bed as my own." She sat up with a smirk and slid his pillow further towards her for emphasis.

"Wouldn't have it any other way, Midget. Wouldn't have it any other way." After all, if sharing a bed was only the beginning, neither could wait to see what would come next.

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**Wow, this is like, I don't know, victory lap time or something. Anyways, please leave lots of reviews and comments as they make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. You've all been wonderful readers and I hope that you come back again in the future.**

**For now, though, this is Silver Hearted, signing off.**


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